Please keep your posts about natural health and beauty things! This is another popular demand section. So don't prove us wrong and fill it with posts about natural face masks, herbal medicine and anything else you think belongs here.

The Internet is so full of information regarding this that it is really a struggle to try to find something decent.

I suffered from excema which has gotten better now as I've gotten older, but I still need daily lotion on my dry skin. I have been looking for moving to an alternative that I can mix at home by myself (or by as one ingredient) and ideally with ingredients that can be grown locally/nationally. Now there is a challenge :)

I thought to try rapeseed oil on its own, but I heard that vegetable oils leave skin too grease and you start getting spots. Not sure how it smells either.

Would be interested in hearing ideas from others or ingredients that other people use.

I'm not sure about rapeseed oil, I've never used it topically. However, there are lots of oils you can use (or even blend). One of the best oils for skin is Jojoba - it's very similar in structure to human skin's natural oil, sebum. It is absorbed fairly quickly and doesn't leave an oily residue. Sunflower oil is also light and well absorbed. If you need something a little heavier to blend in (you may not want to disappear too quickly) then sea buckthorn, rosehip and or avocado oils are all excellent. You'd only want a small amount of these in your lighter oil as they are very "oily" but they also have wonderful healing properties which may help, other than just moisturising. Whatever you choose, just make sure they are proper therapeutic grade oils. The stuff from the supermarket is not suitable, having been chemically treated to standardise it and give it a long shelf life (personally I don't use it for anything).

You can also look at essential oils to add in - lavender, frankincense, patchouli and chamomile are all excellent for skin issues and Helichrysum is the best thing ever for healing - brilliant for flair ups.

Finally, I'd have a look at your triggers - it sounds like you've maybe cut out many of the things that affected your eczema as a child but there may still be things that keep it grumbling along under the surface, even if you don't have many acute flair ups.

Hope that helps.

Maggie

Never doubt that you can change history. You already have. Marge Piercy